Reconciling custom, citizenship and colonial legacies: Ni-Vanuatu tertiary student attitudes to national identity

Nation-building remains a key challenge in Vanuatu. From the origins of this new nation in 1980, it was clear that creating a unifying sense of national identity and political community from multiple languages and diverse traditional cultures would be difficult. This paper presents new survey and focus group data on attitudes to national identity among tertiary students in Vanuatu. The survey identifies areas of common attitudes towards nationalism and national identity, shared by both Anglophone and Francophone Ni-Vanuatu. However, despite the weakening ties between language of education and political affiliation over recent years, the findings suggest that there remain some key areas of strong association between socio-linguistic background, and attitudes to the nation, and national identity. These findings cast new light on the attitudes of likely future elites towards regional, ethnic, intergenerational and linguistic fault lines in Vanuatu and the challenges of building a cohesive sense of political community and national identity.

Leg muscle pH following sprint running

In an effort to compare the disturbances in leg muscle pH during sprint running, muscle biopsies were obtained from the gastrocnemius and vastus lateralis muscles of six healthy men (three endurance-trained and three nonendurance-trained) before and after a treadmill sprint run (TSR) to fatigue (54-105 s) at roughly 125% of their aerobic capacities. Following the TSR, repeated blood samples were taken from a hand vein and later analyzed for pH, PCO2, and lactic acid (HLa). The muscle specimens were analyzed in duplicate for pH and HLa. Resting-muscle pH was 7.03 +/- 0.02 (means +/- SE) and 7.04 +/- 0.01 for the gastrocnemius and vastus lateralis muscles, respectively. At the termination of the TSR, the pH in these muscles was 6.88 +/- 0.05 and 6.86 +/- 0.03, respectively. After a 400-m timed run on the track, the pH in the gastrocnemius of four of the subjects averaged 6.63 +/- 0.03, while blood pH and HLa were 7.10 +/- 0.03 and 12.3 mM, respectively. Although no differences in pH and HLa were observed between the vastus lateralis and gastrocnemius muscles at the end of the treadmill trial, it is speculated that the lesser disturbance in acid-base balance seen in endurance performers may have been due to a lesser production of metabolites in their running musculature when compared to nonendurance performers.

The constructional geometry of early Javanese temples

The early development of Hindu Javanese architecture can be traced through interpretation of epigraphs, archaeological excavations, and comparison of extant temples with other traditions. However, while many scholars have speculated on connections between Javanese Hindu temples and presumed antecedents in India, these have been made on the basis of visual comparison and epigraphic interpretations. No Indian temple has been conclusively shown to be a model for the earliest Javanese temples. Archaeologist and temple historian Michael Meister has shown in his analysis of the geometric composition of early Hindu temples in South Asia how a ritual sixty-four square mandala was the geometric basis of temple construction during the formative period (fifth to eighth century) of the Indian architectural tradition. Working from an understanding of temple construction sequence as well as their ritual underpinnings, Meister found that the sixtyfour square mandala's dimensions correlate closely to the constructed dimensions at the level of the vedibandha (which corresponds with the plan level of the sanctuary threshold). Furthermore, he shows how the horizontal profile of the cella depends on the number of offsets and the proportional relationships between ech offset based on the subdivision of the sixty-four square grid. The authors have investigated whether a similar compositional basis can be found for the earliest Javanese temples on the Dieng Plateau in the highlands of central Java, despite differences in architectonic and symbolic expression. The analysis of relationships between ritual geometry and actual temple layouts for these buildings has the potential to furthering our understanding of the connections between Hindu temples in Java and those in India.

Thought and feeling in Giedion's mechanization takes command

An internal crisis within architecture and the way historiography both presents and conceals it, can be seen most strikingly in the contrast between two publications by the architectural historian Sigfried Giedion, Space Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, published in 1941, and Mechanization Takes Command: A Contribution to Anonymous History, published in 1948. These two publications take us back to the scene of World War Two, the former during the war and after Giedion's affair with America, and the latter after the war. At the time of publication Giedion's former book, Space, Time and Architecture, was seen as a "blockbuster" by the architectural community (especially in the USA). The latter publication, Mechanization, did not receive a favourable response by the same professional community. Their contrasting historiography suggests that the internal crisis of architecture is in a constant struggle with architecture's exterior, in this case, war. Giedion's Mechanization can be seen as the shadow text of the progressive myth of the former. With a focus on Mechanization, the paper aims to open its discursive approach to history. The post-war city is where Giedion's publications and my studies on "a gap of history" coincide and intersect. Giedion is fascinated with psychic factors shown in the recurring theme of the split between thought and feeling and exemplified in the dialectic between image and text. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory I argue that this functions as a mirror-stage in relation to a discourse on architecture and to architecture's disciplinary boundaries where the subject of architecture lacks the ideality and unity that is represented in the former publication.

‘“Rediscovery”, ‘“Reinvigoration” and “Redefinition” in perpetuity: Australian engagement with India 1983-2011

This paper examines the various strands of Australia-India relations between 1983 and 2011, from the early initiatives of the Hawke-Keating Governments, Australia's response to the Pokhran nuclear tests and the vexed issue of supplying uranium to India. It examines the undulating nature of realtions in an effort to understand why, over this period, it has been so difficult to establish nroms.

Thinking with the body: Mind and movement in the work of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance

Thinking with the Body was an exhibition at London's Wellcome Collection, offering a glimpse into Wayne McGregor | Random Dance's interdisciplinary research and the impact it has in the rehearsal studio. Staged in the run-up to the first performances of Atomos at Sadler's Wells (Oct 2013), the exhibition featured the results of over a decade of interdisciplinary research into choreographic creativity which has been applied in the studio, in dance education, and to increase public understanding.

Wellcome Collection is a free visitor destination exploring the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future. Wellcome Collection is part of the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving improvements in human and animal health.

The exhibition finished on 27 October 2013, but the film exhibits are still available to view online.